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In this groundbreaking narrative, longtime Washington Post reporter Craig Timberg and award-winning AIDS researcher Daniel Halperin tell the surprising story of how Western colonial powers unwittingly sparked the AIDS epidemic and then fanned its rise. Drawing on remarkable new science, Tinderbox overturns the conventional wisdom on the origins of this deadly pandemic and the best ways to fight it today.

Recent genetic studies have traced the birth of HIV to the forbidding equatorial forests of Cameroon, where chimpanzees carried the virus for millennia without causing a major outbreak in humans. During the Scramble for Africa, colonial companies blazed new routes through the jungle in search of rubber and other riches, sending African porters into remote regions rarely traveled before. It was here that humans first contracted the strain of HIV that would eventually cause 99 percent of AIDS deaths around the world.

Western powers were key actors in turning a localized outbreak into a sprawling epidemic as bustling new trade routes, modern colonial cities, and the rise of prostitution sped the virus across Africa. Christian missionaries campaigned to suppress polygamy, but left in its place fractured sexual cultures that proved uncommonly vulnerable to HIV. Equally devastating was the gradual loss of the African ritual of male circumcision, which recent studies have shown offers significant protection against infection.

Timberg and Halperin argue that the same Western hubris that marked the colonial era has hamstrung the effort to fight HIV. From the United Nations AIDS program to the Bush administration's historic relief campaign, global health officials have favored well-meaning Western approaches--abstinence campaigns, condom promotion, HIV testing--that have proven ineffective in slowing the epidemic in Africa. Meanwhile they have overlooked homegrown African initiatives aimed squarely at the behaviors spreading the virus.

In a riveting narrative that stretches from colonial Leopoldville to 1980s San Francisco to South Africa today, Tinderbox reveals how human hands unleashed this epidemic and can now overcome it, if only we learn the lessons of the past.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A remarkable volume. With rare clarity, Tinderbox lays bare the origins of the AIDS virus, and then reveals the often hapless and delinquent responses of the international community. It's a fascinating read: relentlessly honest, sometimes scathing, alway principled."—Stephen Lewis, Founder/Director of AIDS-Free World, Former UN Special Envoy on AIDS in Africa

"Remarkable...reads like a detective novel."—The New Yorker

“Gripping … buy the book.”—The Nation

"A strong warning to those who would disregard the cultural specificities of those one is trying to serve."—The New York Times (EDITORS CHOICE)

"Tinderbox will help readers understand...why the period ahead is so critical in fighting the epidemic. Millions of lives depend on the effort."—The Washington Post

“In addition to a useful history of the disease, Timberg and Halperin examine how to confront it and develop more effective ways to fight it…[Timberg and Halpern] present a forceful case with which future students of HIV and AIDS will have to reckon.”—Kirkus (STARRED REVIEW)

“An essential and engrossing read, Timberg and Halperin’s sweeping work covers AIDS from its origins…to its impact on the world today…Extensively researched, eminently readable and accessible, Timberg and Halperin’s work is a notable and invaluable addition to the AIDS canon.”—Booklist (STARRED REVIEW)

"Tinderbox is an unusually compelling and informative account of how the AIDS epidemic has affected the world, particularly the peoples of Africa. In a compassionate and engaging manner, Timberg and Halperin bring to life the story from its beginnings to the most recent evidence on how to effectively prevent further tragedy."—Jay Levy, M.D., director, Laboratory for Tumor and AIDS Virus Research, University of California, San Francisco

"Craig Timberg and Daniel Halperin have written a searing book about the AIDS epidemic. Tinderbox is an indictment of Western ineptitude and meddling and lost opportunities to prevent millions of infections and deaths. But it also contains valuable prescriptions for making changemdash;and it's an important read for anyone who cares about Africa."—Stephanie Nolen, author of 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa

"Timberg and Halperin have been challenging conventional wisdom (and behavior change skeptics like me) for years. Their book is entertaining, thought-provoking, human, and in the end, hopeful for a continent that craves some answers after two decades of HIV prevention failures."—Francois Venter, M.D., president, Southern African HIV Clinicians Society

"Randy Shilts's And the Band Played On was the first—and for decades the best—book on AIDS. Craig Timberg and Daniel Halperin's Tinderbox is every bit as good, revealing the same denial, the same story of politics trumping science, and the same tragedy. This time, it is about the whole world, not just San Francisco. Read it!"—Malcolm Potts, M.D., author of The AIDS Reader and Ever Since Adam and Eve

"The sometimes glorious, often tragic constellation of science, politics, and personalities in the fight against AIDS comes to life in the masterful storytelling of an energetic journalist and a passionate scientist."—Arthur Allen, author of Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver

"An excellent read. Tinderbox brilliantly outlines the successes, failures, and missed opportunities in the battle of HIV prevention over the last thirty years."—Elly Katabira, M.D., president, International AIDS Society

About the Author

Craig Timberg is the former Johannesburg bureau chief for The Washington Post. From his position, he visited twenty-three African nations and penned dozens of major stories about AIDS. He is now The Washington Post's deputy national security editor. Daniel Halperin, PhD, is an epidemiologist and medical anthropologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and has taught at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. He was a top technical adviser in the US government's PEPFAR program to combat AIDS.

Top customer reviews

A senior executive at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative recommended this book as a primer on the fight (so far) to end HIV/AIDS. Discussions of policy and science are not often page turners. But TINDERBOX turned out to be just that. Written by Washington Post reporter, Craig Timberg, TINDERBOX shot down pretty much every assumption I held about the epidemic. Did you know, for instance, that the virus itself is probably tens of thousands of years old ... and was unleashed on humankind thanks to the depredations of fin de siècle colonialism? Me neither. Everything I thought I knew about the infection (as a white, heterosexual, reasonably well-informed male raised and educated in the US) turned out to be either years out of date or just plain wrong ... even embarrassingly stupid. If the truth about HIV/AIDS, a modern killer of unbelievable magnitude, is of interest to you, read this account.

I consider myself a well-read person, but I had to plead absolute ignorance on the AIDS epidemic before reading Tinderbox. Timberg's book is not only a page turner, but it educates and offers practical solutions to curb the further spread of HIV that are rooted in science. I hope public health officials around the world stop and read this book.

For anyone who has studied the global aides epidemic, and the on going efforts to fight same, this book opened even my eyes as to the overlooked simplicities that could have (and still can!) save millions. Well written, well researched and gave me a new perspective. My research had not reached identical conclusions, let me open to even further possibilities. A very well done and accessible book.

I love this book, it provides a good and thorough history of the disease and a nice background and small excerpt on the future. It's unfortunate that there seems to be such controversy surrounding it, I would only suggest that readers look at the authors and their bios, very competent people here.

So apparently AIDS didn't start because a man had sex with a monkey years ago. Who knew?

All kidding aside, Timberg does a great job explaining the origins of HIV, discussing various approaches that were implemented to stop the spread of the disease, and how people and politics got in the way. The book gives a good analysis that undermines a lot of the conventional wisdom about HIV and is well worth the read.